Elhossieni sparks comeback for Pirates

WEST WINDSOR - For Karim Elhossieni, three years of hard work culminated in a day to remember.

The senior forward sparked a big comeback by the West Windsor-Plainsboro South boys' basketball team yesterday, pacing the Pirates to a 51-48 overtime victory against Hamilton West.

The Pirates trailed by 12 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter but Elhossieni had eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to help hand the Hornets (5-1) their first loss.

Elhossieni was cut from the team as a freshman and sophomore, came back to make JV as a junior and earned a starting berth this season.

'I give him credit,' coach Bob Schurtz said. 'With our team playing 11 guys it's gonna be a different guy every night. Tonight it was Karim, I'm glad he was ready for it and good for him.'

'Every day after I got cut, I was just working hard,' said Elhossieni, who also made the game-clinching defensive play. 'Last year I finally made it, and I'm just working harder this year. This feels great.'

WWPS held Hornet sharp shooter Dan Garcia to three points, but could not contain Tyleer Wrenn. With the score tied 23-23 after a sloppy first half so typical of noon starts, Wrenn scored 10 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter as Hamilton opened a 37-25 advantage.

But Tommy Hussong (12 points), who struggled with his shooting but went 7-for-8 from the line, hit two foul shots to start WWPS on a 10-0 run.

Wrenn kept Hamilton ahead with two free throws to make it 39-35 early in the third before eight straight gave WWPS a 43-39 lead. Hamilton managed to rally and force overtime as Wrenn hit two foul shots with 58.4 seconds left to make it 45-45, and no one scored after that in regulation.

Trailing 47-46 in OT, WWPS got a bucket from Jeff Register and two foul shots from Elhossieni for a 50-47 lead. Garcia and South's Jonathan Kline traded foul shots and Hamilton's last chance came when it inbounded from under its basket with 3.8 seconds left.

Elhossieni capped his day by intercepting the deep pass as the clock ran out.

'We set it up where we don't want them to shoot a three-pointer,' Elhossieni said. 'He was pressured (on the inbounds), he only had five seconds, I saw it and just picked it.'

'When they know you have to have the three, they can just guard the three like that,' Hamilton coach Jason 'D-2' Malloy said. 'It's pretty hard to get anything.'

It was the fifth win in six games for WWPS (5-2), who continue to get help from all over the lineup.

'We've got a lot of resolve,' Schurtz said. 'We kind of jokingly say we gotta embrace the ugly because that's kind of who we are. We didn't do a great job early on of settling in, running our offense and attacking them. They were setting the tempo and creating all the turnovers

'With what we were able to do in the late third quarter, I give a lot of credit to Karim and Jon Kline, our freshman. They really came in and were difference makers late in the third, just creating tempo and pressure. That helped Danny (Borup) and Tommy settle in and that helped us out.'

Elhossieni just wanted to play his part.

'We're playing as a team right now, we don't really have the star players,' he said. 'I guess I just needed to show the guys I could make my presence in the felt. I wanted to come out and show myself.'